Abstract

Effective performance in a situation relies on having a
good awareness of that situation or at least, if SA is poor, being aware
that this is the case. This study examined the bias (tendency to accept
or reject available information) and actual and perceived SA of
firefighters across two different situations The data suggested that,
although actual SA and bia varied across the situations, perceived SA
remained relatively constant. This raises the possibility that
individuals may have a ‘resting level’ of perceived SA and that the
tasks used in this study were effective in manipulating actual SA while perceived SA remained at the resting level.